Pornography in the United States has existed since the country's origins and has become more readily accessible in the 21st century. Advanced by technological development, it has gone from a hard to find "back alley" item to, beginning in 1969 with Blue Movie by Andy Warhol, the Golden Age of Porn and home video, being more available in the country and later, starting in the 1990s, readily accessible to nearly anyone with a computer or other device connected to the internet.
Attempts made to suppress it include: outright bans, prohibitions of its sale, censorship or rating schemes that restrict audience numbers, and claims that it is prostitution and thereby subject to regulations governing prostitution. Legal decisions affecting production and consumption of pornography include those relating to its definition, its relationship with prostitution, the definition of obscenity, rulings about personal possession of pornography, and its standing in relation to freedom of expression rights.
American advocates for pornography often cite the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech; however, under the Miller test established by Miller v. California, anything lacking "serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value" is generally not protected. However, the Supreme Court of the United States held in Ashcroft V. Free Speech Coaltion (2002) Coalition that pornography which involves consenting adults is protected by the First Amendment, even if the models "appear to be" minors but are, in fact of lawful age, and thus has seen to protect the majority of, but Not All,pornography on the basis of first-amendment law. Pornography's critics and detractors have blamed it for a succession of societal and spiritual ills.